GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Leelanau County will pay $625,000 to four sheriff’s deputies who were secretly recorded over what they believed to be private telephone lines at the Sheriff’s Department, court records said.

Joining Kiessel and Lamb as plaintiffs are Michael Bankey and Duane Wright.

The settlement was filed Wednesday, Jan. 16, in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

“Simply stated, this factually started with plaintiffs’ reasonable belief they had a right to make private non-recorded telephone calls on an office line marked “Private Out” and that they also had a right to conduct confidential union business on this line,” attorney Michael Dettmer wrote in court papers.

“When they learned or realized that the private out line (and all lines of the administrative offices) were being recorded and that any member of the public (including judges, County Board members and prosecutors) who called in to the LCSO (Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office), were recorded without their consent or knowledge, they reasonably believed such recordings were illegal and they reported same to the authorities,” he wrote.

He said that the sheriff was informed on April 15, 2008, that complaints had been filed with state police and FBI. At that point, Dettmer said, “this case turned fully from eavesdropping to retaliation.”

The defense said Keissel helped write the department’s Informational Technology Resources Policy in 2006 after a new phone system was installed at the new sheriff’s facility in Suttons Bay.

The policy said that employees shall use IT resources for official business only, and have no expectation of privacy. It also said the Sheriff’s Department had the right to access information, including voicemail and email.

An assistant state attorney general found no criminal wrongdoing on the part of sheriff’s administration.